New safety rules and technology allow side-by-side workcells.

ATHENS, GA—Researchers at Georgia Tech are applying sensors to people’s arms to train robots to mimic, respond to, and even predict a person’s movements so that the two can work side-by-side more seamlessly.

BERLIN—The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation has begun a project aimed at developing a standard software framework for assembly systems that combine people and robots.

SAITAMA, Japan—People and humanoid robots are working side by side on an assembly line at an assembly plant here that makes money-handling machines.

BOSTON—You’ll never understand your robot until you walk a mile in its screws. A new MIT study reveals that when co-working humans and robots cross-train, productivity improves.

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Researchers at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology have developed new technology to enable people and robots to safely work together side-by-side.

BOSTON—Rethink Robotics has developed a vision-guided, dual-arm robot that can safely work side-by-side with people on assembly lines.

ODENSE, Denmark—Danish company Universal Robots has introduced a lightweight, flexible robot that can work alongside factory personnel without safety shielding.

CAMBRIDGE, MA—MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that they say will enable robots to learn and adapt to humans so they can soon work side-by-side on factory floors.